The 27th is an auspicious day for Louisville resident Ronyale Smith.
On April 27, 2023, she opened Blak Koffee in the West End, at 12th and Jefferson Streets. And on Sept. 27, of this year, Smith opened her second location at the Goodwill Opportunity Center in the Parkland neighborhood.
At the grand opening, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg declared Sept. 27 “Blak Koffee Day” in the city. Smith and her husband Kevin celebrated at a ribbon-cutting surrounded by friends, family, city leaders and Blak Koffee regulars.
Smith spoke at the grand opening with tears welling in her eyes. She said she was trying to hold it in, but she said was overwhelmed with emotions about what her business had become.
“This is a lot,” Smith said. “Just glad that other people believe in me, and see the vision and trust me, because this is a lot to entrust to someone with. More than anything, I'm grateful.”
“A broom closet, a Keurig and a Wi-Fi hotspot”
Blak Koffee began when Smith grew tired of her 9-to-5 job in real estate. She spent a lot of her time meeting clients in the West End, and she said she struggled to find a place to work after her 30-minute commute from her home.
“I wouldn't have a place to have a meeting, or after my meeting was completed, I wouldn't have anything to do in between time,” Smith said.
Then she got an idea.
“I was trying to conduct business in the coffee shop,” she said of her normal locations to pass the time between meetings. “So I wanted it to be a space that was inviting and nice for me to sit in, so that's what I created.”
Smith wasn’t sure what to expect when she opened Blak Koffee’s first location last year.
“I just kind of felt like Blak Koffee would just be one thing,” she said, laughing. “Maybe a broom closet with a Keurig and a Wi-Fi hotspot.”
There are only a few other coffee shops in the West End.
Since she opened, Blak Koffee has catered events across the city, hosted events to support Black vendors and created space for west Louisvillians to come together closer to home.
“West Louisville gets a bad rap, but the residents and the members of the community, they are deserving,” Smith said. “They have buying power, and they want a nice place to come to call their own.”
Blak Koffee employee Roderick Stephens said the new location will offer a different experience in the West End, an area that is historically a food desert. Blak Koffee’s second location will feature their original menu and new items to take away, like salads and sandwiches.
“You can only have so many places that have Taco Bell or McDonald's or Rally’s, you need some fresh food, and you don't really see that too much in the community,” Stephens said. “You have to go either downtown or further east for that, but it's nice to actually have that here right now.”
The power of community
At the grand opening, Smith said Blak Koffee could not have succeeded without West End residents, her employees and her family.
John Sneed is a Blak Koffee employee and Smith’s son. His mom is one of his role models.
“I don't think everybody gets an opportunity to have a superhero in their life,” Sneed said. “And I just see everything, as far as her life, just come to a head, and she gets to have this type of outcome with her dreams. It's amazing….I got a real superhero mom, and I get to just see her every day.”
Sneed is not the only one who sees the fruits of Smith’s labor. Stephens has worked at Blak Koffee for almost a year. He said he found community working there, after leaving his other job at a different local coffee chain.
“I decided I wanted to go someplace where it had more community,” Stephens said, “and [Blak Koffee] just felt, overall, like a better place to be. Once I came to Blak Koffee. It felt good just to walk in and see people and talk to people and have conversations with people.”
Fellow employee Jonnie Storm said the feel of Blak Koffee is different.
“In a lot of coffee shops, you go in, and people are just looking at their phones or laptops,” Storm said. “[But] here, it’s a really good sense of people just collaborating.”
Brittany Boone is originally from Henderson, Kentucky and moved to Louisville to run marketing for Blak Koffee. She said she still remembers the first time she walked into the first location at 12th and Jefferson Streets.
“Every time I come into Blak Koffee, I meet someone new, I hear new stories, and I just love the genuine love that's in the space,” Boone said. ”And everyone — I'm not kidding — everyone, says the same thing about the space, that it's so welcoming and inviting and it helps generate creativity.”
“God’s coffee shop”
Boone said the sense of community is not just because of the residents, but also because of Smith’s faith in God.
“[Smith] knows that this is not her own doing. It's God bringing out people,” Boone said. “It's God that's attracting. [It’s] the Spirit of God being in the space that people are attracted to.”
Smith said her Christian faith has kept her grounded throughout the process of building her business.
“God gave me a vision, and at the heart of it, I'm a community servant,” Smith said. “I'm just doing what, what I'm being led to do, which is bring the community together.”
Smith quoted 1 Corinthians 2:9 which says “Eyes have not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things God has prepared for those who love him.”
She said the verse reminds her that the coffee shop she created is no longer hers.
“It's evident when you look at the community and you see what happens and what takes place, and the interactions and just the love and the community,” Smith said. “All of those things, it's evident that it's not me. It's not about me. This is God's coffee shop. I'm just the vessel.”
